The invention concerns an apparatus and a method for removing view-obstructing materials from a surface of lenses of video cameras and other photographic, viewing and imaging equipment.
During filming, photographing, or assisted viewing (e.g., through binoculars) of events that take place in wet and/or windy weather conditions, serious image degradation occurs due to a combination of rain, and/or other precipitation and debris, that fall and/or accumulate on the lens"" surface of video and other imaging/viewing equipment.
Conventional solutions include clear plastic covers, and umbrella-like arrangements are conventionally employed. Such conventional remedies are often inefficient, cumbersome, and not very effective especially in extreme wet-weather and windy/dusty conditions.
During use of imaging equipment, such as copiers, scanners, etc., where image quality depends on having an unobstructed view of the image to be reproduced, the transparent copying/scanning surface which covers a lens, and through which the image to be reproduced is viewed, often becomes contaminated by dust and other view-obstructing particles.
Conventional remedies, such as wiping with a cleaning solution, while sometimes necessary, are often time consuming, inefficient, and add to the cost (e.g., cleaning solution, wipes, etc.) of operating imaging equipment.
The invention solves the above-identified problems by providing a system and a method capable of removing image-degrading moisture, debris, or build-up, from a lens surface, or from a transparent surface (which may be used as a shield, cover, etc, placed between the lens and the image, hereinafter referred to as a xe2x80x9clens shield surfacexe2x80x9d), which is exposed and/or is susceptible to moisture, or build-up, by delivering air to the lens surface (or lens shield surface) at a sufficiently high velocity to remove and/or prevent formation of the image-degrading moisture, debris, and/or build-up. The inventive system is arranged such than the image is not adversely affected at any time during the moisture or build-up removal, Also, the inventive system requires minimal, if any, action on the part of the user of the system to perform the moisture or built-up removal.